Inbox Inspiration: Lent: March 27 - April 10, 2019

March 27, 2019

Lent - Sacrifice

Dear Friends,
As I look back on my childhood, I recall that my parents gave up a lot for my brother and me.
They gave up buying new cars and going out to dinner often and many other things.
And they did this out of love for my brother and me.
They wanted, above all, to give us the best education possible.
They sacrificed for us.
Usually, during Lent we are encouraged to give up something.
That something might be chocolate, desserts, beer, pizza, soft drinks, or whatever.
We are to do this giving up, this sacrifice, out of love for God.
We may do this as a way of repenting for sin.
Or we may do it as a self-discipline, a way to grow in our strength to avoid evil and do good.
But beyond these motives, we sacrifice during Lent because we recognize the One who is above and beyond us.
We sacrifice out of love for the Divine Other, for God.
So, as with the personal sacrifices made by my parents and probably also yours, our Lenten sacrifice is very other-centered.
It is a statement that there is something, Someone beyond us for whom we live.
 “When you make a sacrifice, you don’t just give something up, you acknowledge a realm greater than yourself. ‘Sacrifice’ means ‘to make sacred.’ You go beyond self. You make room for a greater mystery.”
From Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore (1940 –. American, author, psychotherapist and Doctor of Religious Studies).
[For more reflections on Lenten themes, see the next two Inbox Inspirations, April 3 and 10.]
May we be transformed more and more fully into the likeness of God, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner

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April 3, 2019

Lent - Prayer

Dear Friends,
Back in the seventh century, Saint John Damascene defined prayer as
“…the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God.”
Many of us, including me, learned this in our faith formation classes.
There is much richness in this definition.
The idea is that prayer is the centering of our inner self on God.
It is being aware of the longing in our hearts for God –
for being close to God, for having God be present with us right now.
It is the focusing of our awareness –
in one sense, beyond ourselves, on the One from whom we have come,
but in another sense, on ourselves, on the One who is at the core of our being.
Above and beyond anything else, our prayer is simply being with God.
Whatever words we say or whatever passages we read,
prayer is being with God.
God is already there – here – with us – within us.
The Season of Lent calls us to make sure that we pray.
What this really means is that we are to lift up our minds and hearts, open our inner selves simply to being with God.
“…prayer contains an impulse towards simplicity. Prayer can be a ‘being with’…Beyond praise, petition, or begging for pardon, the impulse in prayer is towards presence, being with, being with the person…In the gospels people do indeed ask Jesus for things... But there is a deeper movement, expressed by the attitude of sinners whose concern is to ‘sit with’ him (Mark 2:15).”
From The Impact of God by Father Iain Matthew (1940 –. British, Carmelite priest, Doctoral Degree from Oxford, author, chaplain, retreat director).
[For more reflections on Lenten themes, see the Inbox Inspirations for last week, March 27, and for next week April 10.]
May we be transformed more and more fully into the likeness of God, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner

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April 10, 2019

Lent - Charity

Dear Friends, 
Our traditional Lenten practices are fasting, prayer, and charity.
We hear Jesus speaking of these in chapter six of the Gospel of Matthew.
I see fasting or personal sacrifice and prayer as leading to charity.
So, when we sacrifice or give up something – snacks between meals, beef, candy – when we do this, we choose some physical self-denial.
One of the effects of this choice of going without something is to put us in touch with those who go without life’s necessities without any choice in the matter.
It puts us, at least spiritually, in touch with those who are hungry or homeless or without health care and without hope.
Again, when we pray, we lift up our minds and hearts to God who is love itself.
One of the effects of this is to put us in touch with the compassion of Jesus.
It puts us in touch with those in need who were always primary in Jesus’ ministry.
So, our sacrifice and prayer during Lent lead us to charity.
They lead us to look and see those who are in need.
They move us to treat them as our brothers and sisters, as God’s daughters and sons.

“Charity is the live wire along which the power of God, indwelling our finite spirits, can and does act on other souls and other things, rescuing, healing, giving support and light. Such secret intercessory prayer ought to penetrate and accompany all our active work. It is the supreme expression of the spiritual life on earth. It moves from God to others through us, because we have ceased to be self-centered units, but are woven into the great fabric of praying souls, the mystical body through which the work of Christ on earth goes on being done.”

From Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941. British, Anglo-Catholic, author on religion and Christian mysticism, retreat director.)

[For more reflections on Lenten themes, see also the Inbox Inspirations for the last two weeks, March 27 and April 3.]

May we be transformed more and more fully into the likeness of God, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner

Inbox Inspiration: God and Me: February 27 - March 20, 2019

February 27, 2019

God and Me - 1

Dear Friends,  

Deep down, all of us are seeking God.
All human beings have a desire to seek and find God.
There is a radical or existential incompleteness in each of us.
We desire something, Someone beyond ourselves.
Philosophers and theologians say that we seek the transcendent.
We have this hunger built right into us – we are “hard-wired” in this way.
Saint Paul says that God created us “so that [we] might seek God… and find God, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27)
Saint Augustine says it beautifully in his memorable prayer:
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” (Confessions)
Of course, for a long time Augustine looked for God in the wrong places.
We can do the same thing and next week I will focus on that.
“Though we seldom recognize it, our senses seek the beauty, the sweetness, the good feelings of God. Our mind seeks the truth and wisdom of God. Our will seeks to live out the goodness, the righteousness of God. Our memory and imagination seek the justice and peace of God. In other words, we yearn for the attributes of God with every part of ourselves. Human beings are two-legged, walking, talking desires for God.” 
From The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald G. May, M.D. (1940-2005. Medical doctor, psychiatrist, author, staff member of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.)

For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations for the next three weeks, March 6, 13 and 20.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner

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March 6, 2019

God and Me - 2

Dear Friends,
Last week I said that deep down, we all seek God.
All human beings have a desire to seek and find God.
The problem is that sometimes we mistakenly look for God in the wrong places.
Sometimes we get tripped up into thinking that being able to buy and own what we want, or having more money or more recognition by others, or having physical comfort and pleasure will bring us happiness.
Sooner or later, maybe in mid-life, maybe later, we sense that we have been seeking things, maybe perfectly good in themselves, but things that are limited.
We sense that they still leave us unsatisfied, unfulfilled, maybe even unhappy.
Maybe we have been seeking goods instead of the Creator of all good things.
When we become aware of this, we get in touch with who we really are as persons.
We get in touch with our deep, undeniable desire for God.
And then we start seeking God, consciously and intentionally.
Next week I will pick up on this desiring and searching for God.
“Because we can’t encounter God directly through our senses and concepts, we are naturally drawn to the things we can feel and see and grasp. We gravitate to the things of God, to things that we sense are good, true, beautiful, and loving. We expect these good things to satisfy us. We do not realize that we love them not for themselves, but because they whisper to us of their Creator, the One we really long for.”
From The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald G. May, M.D. (1940-2005. Medical doctor, psychiatrist, author, staff member of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.)

For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations from last week, February 27, and for the next two weeks, March 13 and 20.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner

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March 13, 2019

God and Me - 3

Dear Friends,
We can seek God and maybe even feel God’s closeness to us in various places:
the ocean, the mountains, a piece of music, a painting,
the gospels, the crucifix or tabernacle in a church…
These are some of the places where we can seek God.
One place that we may easily forget is within ourselves.
God is within us.
Some of our great spiritual writers have said that union with God or closeness with God is not something that can be achieved.
It already exists.
We just need to awaken to God’s presence within us.
Our hunger for something or Someone more,
our desire for the Light that will help us to see,
our desire for the Love that both grounds and moves us,
and our desire for the Life that is a fullness for us even now –
these are signs of God within us.
In fact, these desires are God, acting within us.
Let’s make room to be silent and still enough to seek and find God right there.
“…God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. We are born in union with God and we ‘live and move and have our being’ in God throughout our lives (Acts 17:28). In keeping with the root meaning of ‘nature’ (‘natura,’ birth), this union with the Divine is our human nature. It is so essential to our being that John [Saint John of the Cross] says we could not exist without it.”   

From The Dark Night of the Soul by Gerald G. May, M.D. (1940-2005. Medical doctor, psychiatrist, author, staff member of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.)

For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations from the last two weeks, February 27 and March 6, and for next week, March 20.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner

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March 20, 2019

God and Me - 4

Dear Friends, 
As I have said in recent weeks, we all seek God.
One of the places where we can find God is right within ourselves.
We are born in union with God.
God is at the core of our being.
I accent the word our.
God is within each person, every human being.
Sometimes it is hard to see God in others –
especially if they have a grating or abrasive personality,
or if they are very self-focused and even narcissistic,
or if their moral standards are contrary to what we believe is right,
or if they are criminals or terrorists,
or if they are simply very different from us.
Yes, at times it can be difficult to seek, much less experience God in others.
But, it is still true: God is within all of us – within all persons and within all that is.
In fact, some of our great Catholic spiritual teachers
state that the more we grow and mature in the spiritual life,
the more we realize that we are part of and not apart from –
part of all of humanity and all of creation, and not apart from anything.
So, the more we grow spiritually, the more we are able to discern
God within, maybe hidden at times, but still there, within all that is.
“To understand this union of which we speak, know that God is present in substance in each soul, even that of the greatest sinner in the world. And this kind of union with God always exists, in all creatures.” 

From The Ascent of Mount Carmel by Saint John of the Cross. (1542-1591. Spanish mystic, Carmelite friar and priest, theologian, poet, and Doctor of the Church.)

For more reflections on God and Me, see the Inbox Inspirations from the last three weeks, February 27, March 6 and 13.
Gracious God, move us to seek you and to be restless until we rest in you. Amen.
Father Michael Schleupner